Animal Menagerie

When driving around Yellowstone, you won’t go very far before you come across a traffic nightmare: seven or eight cars backed up in both directions, with people jumping out to go look at some animal. Rob and I have nicknamed them “bear-parazzi” and just this one photo demonstrates why. Typically, you get a professional photographer out there with their scope, then a bunch of people driving by have to stop. Other folks get out their cameras or binoculars, a few folks stick their heads through their sunroofs. Occasionally, the animal in question will get closer to the cars and one or two people are sure to get a little too close and get waved back by the park ranger. And so on. This can happen multiple times during a car trip to anywhere, and we typically have to build an extra 20-30 minutes into our estimated time of arrival. But I do get it: most of these folks are only here for a few days of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we get to live here for five whole months. On our first trip to Yellowstone, we were among the bear-parazzi more often than I’d like to admit. But these days, we’ve seen enough bears, bison, elk, and so forth that we no longer feel the need to get out of the car. If I can’t see it from the passenger seat, we just move on.

But we have certainly gotten the chance to see and photograph a lot of animals, and so here are some photos to share with you. I’m a little embarrassed at the horrible quality of these shots; half the time I’m taking them out the passenger side window, while our car is in motion. And even if I’m not moving, my subject is! Many would-be photos have been ruined by my inability to get a good close-up before the critter has moved out of my view. But every so often I get a really nice shot. Like these bison that we had to walk past on our way to see a geyser that’s located out in the remote backcountry (more on that in another post). They were real, and terrifying, and we got a tad closer to them than is recommended. But we have learned a little bit about how to identify when a bison is getting agitated, and these two couldn’t have cared less about us.

Below, please enjoy the elk, pronghorn antelopes, mountain goats, bears, coyote, and moose.

And, of course, the eagles. Until we meet again, Take It Easy.